The June 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Dawn of Doable and Delicious. Dawn challenged the Daring Bakers’ to make Chocolate Pavlovas and Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse. The challenge recipe is based on a recipe from the book “Chocolate Epiphany” by Francois Payard. I had so many plans for this challenge again: something with white chocolate, something with lots of fruit, a vegan pavlova with vegan chocolate mousse for my daughter’s birthday party at her daycare center (one of the boys in her group is highly allergic to virtually anything edible, even soy), but again, I ran out of time and made something more simple, though not less beautiful, for the party: an (almost) vegan butterfly cake. So it was only yesterday that I started to make the challenge recipe which you can find here.

I was lucky, though, that everything went smoothly. The chocolate meringues were really yummy as was the chocolate mascarpone mousse. I have to admit, though, that the combination of both was a little too heavy on the chocolate side. I’m a chocoholic, so it must be really chocolaty for me to say that. Also, for my tastebuds there was too much cream in the recipes. I added some raspberries to the dessert so it got a little fruity note which was really good with all that chocolate. I did like it, but probably won’t make the whole assembly again. I’ll definitely save the chocolate meringue recipe for future use, though. SO delicious!

Now how do you make vegan pavlova? Do you use Versawhip or Methylcellulose or some other “molecular gastronomy” ingredient? Just curious. I was obsessed with making vegan meringue for a little bit, but never got around to following through with any of my ideas.

Directions:
1. All ingredients should be really cold (store in the refrigerator overnight).
2. Mix half of the tapioca starch with the rice flour, sugar and baking powder.
3. Add coconut milk and stir.
4. Knead well and let rest for 30 minutes.
5. Add remaining tapioca starch and knead well. The dough should have the consistency of shortcrust. You won’t be able to pipe it, but you could use cookie cutters to make the pavlova bases.
6. Bake in preheated oven at 150°C/ 300°F for about 15-20 minutes.